UPDATES
9:00 am Israel time, Friday, July 10 2015
**An attempted murder was thwarted early this morning when a Palestinian terrorist armed with a knife rushed a border guard at a checkpoint north of Jerusalem. The terrorist was disarmed and captured.
**The last few days have seen a media gush of information concerning four Israelis apparently held by Hamas in Gaza and a plethora of disgusting comments concerning them.
Let’s review who they are:
A fake tank which was paraded through Gaza Wednesday night. Note the raised fist holding two “dog tags”–supposedly with the military ID numbers of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin.
1. Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul: He was killed, along with 6 other IDF soldiers, when their antiquated Armored Personnel Carrier was hit by enemy fire on July 20. His charred body, or parts of it, was ferreted away by Hamas terrorists.
2. 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin: He was killed on August 1. You may remember that this was the “ceasefire” incident caused by the disastrous lie which John Kerry and Ban Ki-Moon told Israel–specifically that Hamas had agreed that Israel could continue destroying tunnels during the ceasefire. Goldin’s body, or pieces or it, was dragged into a tunnel with members of his unit in pursuit.
3. Avraham Mengisto, a mentally ill 29 year old Israeli-Ethiopian from Ashkelon:
Avraham Mengisto with two family members whose faces have been blurred.
On his own volition, Mengisto walked through an electric wire fence that runs along the beach on the Gaza-Israel border on September 8, 2014. IDF soldiers monitoring the fence saw Mengisto walk across then ordered a helicopter and soldiers to the scene to no avail. Hamas claims that it is not holding him–that after interrogating Mengisto, he left Gaza through a smuggling tunnel to Egypt. He was more likely killed.
4. An unnamed “young” mentally ill Bedouin: He also entered Gaza of his own volition in September of last year. His family had not heard from him for six months before that. His father had this to say yesterday: “From what we hear, my son is still alive. He disappears a lot but usually comes back after 24 hours. This is the first time he’s been missing for such a long time.” Again, there has been no confirmation from Hamas that this man is being held.
But that hasn’t stopped the slimy Hamas from making disgusting comments about the cases.
Concerning Oron Shaul (in a Hamas newspaper two weeks ago): “He is being kept alive.” Other Hamas reports have recently suggested that Goldin is also alive.
Of course, we all know he Shaul is dead; he was burned alive in the APC. As for Goldin, there is no doubt whatsoever; indisputable “proof” was found in the tunnels by those who went in to try to retrieve his body.
Hamas is, as we know, just cynically playing on the feelings of the Goldin and Shaul families and those of the Israeli public.
By the way, what kind of organization holds dead bodies and body parts for ransom?
The same slimy and disgusting terrorist organization that tweeted this yesterday about Mengisto and the Bedouin man (which, again, will not confirm that they have these two Israeli citizens in custory) tweeted this yesterday:
Hamas has the gall to accuse Israel of racism? The same Hamas that is imprisoning or imprisoned, or has killed two mentally ill people?
As revolting as Hamas’ comments are, perhaps even more so are those of Isaac Herzog, the loser in the last election and leader of the opposition:
“Now, when serious facts become clear that show a first-class management failure on the issue of Abraham Mengisto, and a poor communication of Netanyahu’s envoy to the family, the prime minister personally bears the responsibility. [He is] not suited to be prime minister.”
Say what? What does Herzog know about anything? Does he know what talks have been taking place? How is possibly Netanyahu’s “management failure” that caused a mentally ill person to stroll across the border into Gaza?
Unbelievable.
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By the way, it has also come to light in the last 24 hours that Israel has been making every attempt for the last 9 months to have its citizens and the bodies or body parts of its citizens returned.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Your humble servant and his wife had an exciting day yesterday in Jerusalem courtesy of the Megalim organization.
Meeting at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel (on the outskirts of Jerusalem just off the road to Bethlehem) in the morning along with 800 other participants, we broke off into different groups to attend lectures of our choice. We attended:
At 10:15 am: “The destruction of the Temple and the longing for its rebuilding: Coping with crisis, according to Rabbi Akiva”
This intriguing lecture was given by Rabbi Yosef Rimon, the rabbi of Judean community of Alon Shvut. In it, he described how after the Second Temple was destroyed, Rabbi Akiva’s reaction was markedly different from those of the other rabbis who went to see where the holy of holies had been. Instead of weeping, he laughed–not at what had happened, but at what was going to happen–because the good which had been prophesied for the Jewish people could not happen before the bad which had been prophesied had taken place.
Your humble servant did not agree with everything Rabbi Rimon said, but it was very interesting.
At 11:30 am: “Jerusalem of Babylon: New finds from the Judean exiles in Babylon”
Another fascinating lecture given by Yehuda Kaplan, the head of the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. Kaplan described how new archaeological discoveries on clay tablets written in Babylonia chronicle in minutia the daily lives of the Jewish refugees in Babylonia during the period 586-@540. The tablets record family names, rental agreements, agricultural contracts, and a multitude of other items.
It is amazing that that a neighborhood named “Jerusalem Town” was formed in Babylonia following the exile of the Judeans from Jerusalem–and that we have a Babylonian record of it.
At 1:30 pm: “Lessons from the Temple Mount Sifting Project”
In a brilliant presentation, archaeologist Gabriel Barkay discussed in great detail the thousands of objects that have been discovered by volunteers among all the rubble illegally created and removed (400 truckloads) from the Temple Mount by the Islamic Wakf.
Your humble servant has volunteered at the Temple Mount Sifting Project on the Mt. of Olives several times before. The last time, I found a small vividly blue piece of a mosaic from the wall of the Second Temple in my sifting tray. Everyone who goes to Jerusalem should go and sift.
At 3:45 pm: “Archaeological exploration and adventure in 19th century Jerusalem”
Shimon Gibson delivered this talk which was a discussion of how explorers and adventurers came to Jerusalem in the late 1800s and what they found when they got there. One of the interesting revelations was that because of the terrible condition of the Jerusalem water supply, tourists coming to the city could only drink beer and wine.
However, as wonderful as these lectures were, they were not as amazing as the trip we took in the late afternoon to the City of David (Ir David). Of course, we had been there many times before, but this time we did something very different–and unforgettable.
Tomorrow I will describe this in great detail . . . with a maps, photos, and a video.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.